Resources
Early Music Organizations and Workshops
Viola da Gamba Society of America - Our national society dedicated to the support of activities and resources relating to the viola da gamba, other early bowed string instruments, and their music.
Pacifica Viols - Bay Area chapter of the VdGSA
Pacific Northwest Viols - Pacific Northwest chapter of the VdGSA
Viols West - Annual viol workshop held at San Luis Obispo, CA hosted by our friends of the Pacifica chapter
Viol Sphere 2 - Annual viol workshop held at Biosphere 2 Conference Center in Oracle, AZ
Southern California Early Music Society - Supports the study, performance and enjoyment of medieval, renaissance, baroque and classical music
San Diego Early Music Society - Showcases the music of Europe’s medieval, renaissance and baroque periods, as performed on period instruments and in accordance with historical practice with world-renowned early music artists
SoCal Resident Luthiers and Archetiers
Warren Shingleton - SoCal resident viol maker and doctor
Other SoCal luthiers (violin experts) and archetiers (bow experts) with viol experience
Jade Schulz, Violin Specialist, San Diego area
Abe Liebhaber, Bow Specialist, San Diego area
Eric Benning (Benning Violins), Violin Specialist, Los Angeles area
Callier-Scollard Violins, Violin Specialist, Los Angeles area
Brianna Goldberg (BG Bows), Bow Specialist, Los Angeles area
SoCal Resident Viol Teachers
(Please use our contact form to request contact information for these teachers)
Shanon Zusman
Shanon’s focus is on tone production, helping with individual adjustments to technique to help you find your voice on the instrument. Whether it is bow grip, bow stroke, or left-hand fingerings, Shanon encourages the student to experiment in order to find solutions to challenging passages in solo and consort repertoire. Shanon values creativity, persistence, and above all, patience, as you explore ways to improve your playing.
Shanon holds a doctorate in Early Music Performance from the USC Thornton School of Music, where he studied Baroque double bass and viola da gamba with James Tyler. A recipient of the Fulbright Scholarship to Austria, he became interested in the viola da gamba while studying the history of the bass in Vienna as a student of José Vázquez. He has performed with Bach Collegium San Diego, Con Gioia, Jouyssance, Concordia Clarimontis, Musica Angelica, and Camerata Pacifica Baroque. His scholarly pursuits include researching the early history of the double bass, in addition to making modern editions of unpublished Renaissance and Baroque music for the viola da gamba. Shanon is currently serving as President of SoCal Viols.
Malachai Bandy
Malachai’s specialties include exploration of the meaningful union of scholarship and practice; physics-based approach to bow technique and motion economy; developing individualized mindful-practice regimens; historical text-based articulation techniques; stretching and ergonomics for string players; viol applications of baroque dance notation and physicality.
Malachai, a native of Los Angeles, has amassed a professional performance record on some twenty instruments spanning over 800 years of music history. He graduated cum laude with Distinction in Research and Creative Work from Rice University's Shepherd School of Music with double bass and music history degrees. In recent years, Malachai has performed as a violist da gamba, violonist, and double-reed player with various ensembles in the U.S. and Europe, including The Orpheon Consort, Ars Lyrica Houston, Voices of Music, Queens Baroque, Tesserae, and Ciaramella. He is also a featured soloist in Bear McCreary’s scores to the films 10 Cloverfield Lane (yaylı tanbur, 2016), Welcome Home (viol, 2018), the Emmy-winning title theme for the STARZ television series DaVinci's Demons (viol, 2013), and the video game God of War (nyckelharpa, 2018). After completing a Wagoner Fellowship-funded course of viola da gamba and organological study with José Vázquez in Austria, Spain, and Switzerland, Malachai received a Presser Graduate Award (2016) to create the first comprehensive aural catalog of the Orpheon Foundation’s fifty historical violas da gamba (Duino, Italy). He is currently a PhD candidate and past Provost Fellow and Oakley Fellow in Historical Musicology at the USC Thornton School of Music, and he was the 2019 recipient of both the Society for Seventeenth-Century Music's Irene Alm Memorial Prize and the AMS Pacific Southwest Chapter's Ingolf Dahl Award in Musicology. Malachai’s scholarly interests include topics pertaining to occult philosophy, number symbolism, and Rosicrucianism in the North-German Baroque, as well as viola da gamba technique, repertoire, instrument design, and iconography. In fall 2022, he will join the faculty of Pomona College, founding member of the Claremont Colleges consortium, as Assistant Professor of Music History.
Eva Lymenstull
Eva loves working with students of all ages and experience levels, especially helping students to build confidence in their abilities as players and musicians. Some of her focuses in lessons include developing tools to improve technical proficiency, musical fluency, and healthy playing technique, honing ensemble playing skills, exploring the intricacies of playing consort and continuo lines, and learning to identify musical-rhetorical figures in order to more deeply understand and convey meaning in music.
Los Angeles-based violist da gamba and baroque cellist Eva Lymenstull enjoys a varied career that has taken her across North America and Europe as a soloist, orchestral and chamber musician, and continuo player. She has performed recently as concerto soloist and principal cellist with the Lyra Baroque Orchestra, guest principal cellist of Atlanta Baroque Orchestra, Apollo’s Fire, and Musica Angelica, and appeared with Bach Collegium San Diego, Tafelmusik, Voices of Music, Tesserae, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and Holland Baroque. In 2017, Eva won the Voices of Music International Bach Competition, resulting in a recording of Bach’s D minor cello suite for their online video archive. Other recent recordings can be heard on the Brilliant Classics and Violet Ear labels. A frequent guest at music festivals and on concert series across North America, she has performed at the Carmel Bach, Whidbey Island, Corona del Mar, and Pacific Baroque (Victoria, BC) music festivals; at the Utrecht, Boston, and Berkeley Fringe Festivals; and on the Taylor Johnston Early Music Series, Gotham Early Music Midtown Concerts, and Academy of Early Music concert series. As an educator, Eva teaches baroque cello and viola da gamba as a regular guest artist in residence at the University of Michigan, and has given masterclasses at Michigan State University, McGill University, University of Northern Colorado, USC, and Interlochen Arts Academy. She enjoys working with early music community members and students of all backgrounds, through organizations such as Los Angeles Baroque, SoCal Viols, and SFEMS. Eva holds degrees from the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, Rice University, and University of Michigan, and a doctorate in historical performance practice from Case Western Reserve University.
SoCal Viols Lending Library
The SoCal Viols music library is in excellent shape, and thanks to our very generous donors, we have duplicates of quite a few editions. We are allowing duplicate editions to be borrowed by members. You can now take music home from the playdays to enjoy at your leisure.
Terms: Up to 3 pieces can be borrowed at one time by current members. The music can be signed-out at one of the playdays and shall be returned at the following playday, unless you have made special arrangements with the SoCal Viols board. To access the lending library list click here.
Free Editions of Early Music
